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Element Is An RTS For People Who Don’t Have Time For RTS Games

Element describes itself as “a realtime strategy space game for people who don’t have time to play realtime strategy space games.” I like where this is going. With a low-fi feel and a reasonably simple setup, Element is a strategy game stripped back to the bare essentials. You only have a handful of buildings to…

Two Star Wars: The Force Awakens digital pinball tables launch this week in Pinball FX 2, Zen Pinball 2 and Star Wars Pinball across all of the platforms. Except the Nintendo ones. Otherwise yeah, all of them. Here’s a quick look at both tables in action.

We’re bringing back our regular “Video Game Industry Layoff Stories” feature, where we round up layoff stories from the volatile game industry. If you’re a game dev who wants to share a story—totally anonymously—e-mail me

I hadn’t heard about The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human until a few minutes ago, but apparently it comes out on January 19?! Looks a bit like In The Hunt, combined with Metroid and Shadow of the Colossus? Nice combo! Here’s a trailer.

Heroes of the Storm’s latest playable character might be a wolf, but only sometimes.Greymane, Lord of the Worgen can swap between a ranged human assassin and a melee werewolf, with abilities that take advantage of his dual nature. Also, he would like a keg of beer.

Smite‘s Amaterasu Might Not Be A Wolf, But She Sure Fights Like One

The first god in the Japanese pantheon launched in deity-powered MOBA Smite today, and while she might not be the Amaterasu many gamers are familiar with, she’s just as fierce. She’s definitely not the white wolf of Capcom’s outstanding action adventure game, but then Amaterasu traditionally isn’t. She’s the daughter of the great god Izanagi,…

EA Access Is Coming To PC

EA Access, a subscription program that allows people to play and download a variety of Electronic Arts games, is coming to PC, the publisher said today. The new plan is called Origin Access and it’ll offer everything that EA Access on Xbox One does: Free versions of old games; early access to brand new games;…

Rockstar North Boss Leslie Benzies Is Out After Nearly Two Decades

The man in charge of the regional Rockstar studio long credited with handling the bulk of development for the Grand Theft Auto games is no longer at the company, Rockstar confirmed to Kotaku today. The company said Rockstar North studio head Leslie Benzies had been on sabbatical for much of the past 17 months. Rockstar…

We’re Making A Change To Video Game Reviews At Kotaku

Like a one-term president we’ve had enough of, we’re ditching the Yes/No/Not Yet review system we’ve been employing for the last four years. What was meant to be a defiance of review scores became a review score. We don’t like review scores. Away it goes. We’ll be keeping the rest of our review system intact,…

The excellent music rhythm game Crypt of the Necrodancer is coming to PlayStation 4 and Vita on February 2. The game has crossbuy support, so if you pick it up on one platform, you’re good to go on the other. Contact the author at [email protected]

Failed $73,000 Kickstarter Offers Refunds (Sort Of)

In October of last year, the director of the video game Kickstarter Midora, which had raised $73,470 but run out of money, wrote in a backer update that he was looking for outside investments. Shockingly, he didn’t find any buyers—hard to imagine why investors wouldn’t want to latch onto a Kickstarter with no money—so now…

CM Punk Says Fans Angry Over His Rating In The Next UFC Game Are ‘Butt-Hurt’

Ex-WWE superstar Phil “CM Punk” Brooks is no stranger to controversy. This time, it’s followed him into the realm of video games. It all began when MMA Junkie reporter Mike Bohn tweeted some new info about EA Sports UFC 2, which releases in March. He noted that CM Punk—a former WWE superstar who’s spent the…

Destiny‘s Nightfall Is Totally Broken [UPDATE: Fixed]

These days, there aren’t a ton of reasons to bother with the Nightfall in Destiny, a video game about the power of true friendship. But if for some reason you do decide to take on this week’s Nightfall challenge, you won’t make it very far. Around halfway through the strike—The Sunless Cell, if you’re curious—after…

Sony recently attempted to trademark the term “Let’s Play” for reasons unknown, but the trademark was denied. Let’s Play is an incredibly popular, borderline ubiquitous term on YouTube and elsewhere. The company has an opportunity to appeal, and haven’t responded to our requests for comment. Contact the author at [email protected]

The LEGO Classic TV Series Batcave Has All The ’60s Batman

Slide-able Batpoles! A Batmobile with a clearly labeled “Emergency Bat-Turn Lever!” Cesar Romero’s Joker, complete with makeup’d over ‘stache! An official “DICK” LEGO piece! Kapow! Whamm! Zooomm! The classic Batman television series hit the airwaves on January 12, 1966, so LEGO has put together a 2,526 piece tribute to that monument to campiness in the…

What Happened When I Brought Kylo Ren Into Fallout 4

I think maybe Kylo Ren has a taste for blood after the end of The Force Awakens… OK, so, the video above is the culmination of a few hours of messing around with mods in Fallout 4. Specifically, I downloadedKylo Ren – Adam Driver 2.0 from Nexus Mods, and it gave me a character that…

The PS2 version of Psychonauts will come to PS4 this spring, Double Fine announced today. Big year for Raz and crew.

Pokémon Turns 20 Years Old, Gets A New 3DS To Celebrate

Damn. Has it really been that long? What you’re looking at above is the upcoming commemorative 3DS releasing on February 27th, which is also the date when Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow are re-releasing on the Nintendo eShop as digital downloads. Naturally, the 3DS bundle will come with Red and Blue pre-installed, and they’ll also…

LEGO Rainbow Six Siege Is Pretty Accurate

A whole round of Rainbow Six environmental destruction with LEGO counter-terrorist operators, made by YouTubers Blacksheep Pictures It’s a stop motion video with some proper Tachanka and Glaz action (pretty cool minifigs by the way). They did a great job translating the gameplay properly. The only difference is the smiling LEGO heads. To contact the…

Watch Mortal Kombat X‘s Four New Kombatants Get Their Fight On

How I’ve missed you, Bo’ Rai Cho. Alien, Leatherface, Triborg—those guys want to kill me. You just want to get drunk, throw up on me and maybe fart in my face. It’s like they made my older brother a Mortal Kombat character. Good old Bo’ Rai Cho is one of the four new fighters coming…